"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

“I really think that this Zeitgeist documentary had a profound impact upon Jared Loughner’s mindset and how he views the world that he lives in.”
— Zach Osler, friend of Tucson gunman

The producers of this film decided to market it virally, so it’s been available for free on the Web for three years.

PART I: Attacking Christianity as a ‘Myth’

This segment has been called “The Da Vinci Code on steroids.” Toward the end, the narrator says, “Christianity, along with all other theistic belief systems, is the fraud of the age. It serves to detach the species from the natural world and likewise, from each other. It supports blind submission to authority. It reduces human responsibility to the effect that God controls everything.”

PART II: 9/11 Was a Conspiracy

Not much to say here. You’ve seen one 9/11 “Truther” documentary, you’ve seen ’em all. But the guys at Loose Change can’t sue for copyright infringement because, hey, it’s a “documentary,” and you can’t copyright crazy.

PART III: TOTAL FREAKING KOOKINESS!

This is the Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test of Zeitgeist where, if you’ve gone along with the Jesus-Was-a-Myth stuff and the 9/11-Was-a-U.S.-Plot stuff, you’re going to find yourself throbbing helplessly in spasms of conspiratorial ecstasy, covered in kook-splooge. The U.S. government and “international bankers” scheme behind the scenes to control every damned thing in the world — and plant computer chips in your brain, to boot!

So there you have it: A couple hours of anti-Christianity, 9/11 “Trutherism” and the familar sort of “New World Order” paranoia beloved by connoisseurs of tin-foil everywhere. And Jared Loughner’s good friend says this two-hour video stew of high-grade kookery had a “profound impact” on the guy who (allegedly) killed six people and wounded 12 others in Tucson on Saturday.

It should go without saying that none of this cuckoo-for-Cocoa-Puffs crackpot stuff has been promoted by Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh or any of the other usual suspects whom Matthew Yglesias, Markos Moulitsas and Sheriff Clarence Dupnik rushed to blame for the Tucson Massacre.

UPDATE JAN. 16: The Google Video versions of the movie originally embedded here — which had been online for more than three years and had hundreds of thousands of views — have apparently been taken down. (Wonder why?) I’m in the process of replacing them with YouTube versions.